“I decide to wait for Evan at the bottom of the stairs after Brenda leaves.”

“Hop on my back and I’ll take you to the river,” Ben says.”

“A week passes and Evan doesn’t stop by.”

“My grandpa Ben took care of his car.”

“After I finish my homework, watch two videotaped lectures for school, and mop and vacuum the floors, I sprawl out like a starfish on top of my bed to think.”

“Ben comes busting through the door at six p.m.”

“Today, May twenty-third, is Ben’s birthday, so when Brenda arrives, I suggest we walk to the corner market to buy a cake mix and a tub of frosting with the money I still have saved up from teaching swim lessons.”

“My mom is relieved I baked a cake, because we’d be up hours past Ben’s bedtime if she had to bake one herself.”

“I see Aaron Tiratore in my dreams.”

“Summer is almost here.”

“By the time my mom gets home, Taylor is long gone, off to some class at the gym to build muscles even bigger than the ones she already has.”

“So I have a boyfriend,” I tell Brenda as we stroll around the block, past dilapidated doorways and beaten-up bus stops two days later.”

“There’s no texting about whether Evan and I should hang out after school the next day; we just do.”

“After breakfast on Monday morning, I do aerobics in front of the TV with the windows open wide so the day can come in.”

“My mom calls into work to say she has a family emergency and can’t return.”

“Evan insists that going to Ben’s play is our first date.”

“I freaked out at Ben’s play,” I tell Brenda the next Tuesday as I sip a Slurpee on the hood of my car in a 7-Eleven parking lot a few blocks from my house.”

“That afternoon, after Brenda and I have finished my driving lesson and I’ve made a nausea-inducing phone call to my testing proctor to confirm that I’ll be at my final exams at the Ocean High library tomorrow, Evan shows up at my door.”

“The next day, Evan’s finals are on a block schedule, so he’s done at noon.”

“When we get home, Evan only has a little bit of time to get ready for a celebratory last day of school dinner he’s going to with his mom, aunt, and uncle.”

“The first day of summer vacation roars to a start.”

“Brenda and I decided to make our once-a-week meetings on Tuesdays, so almost a whole week of summer passes before our first session.”